As there are over 650 Unraced F1 projects from the period 1885 – 2020 I decided before to publish articles of unraced projects per year. This is easier for you to see which attempts happened a specific year. Of course, it is easier for me as well as researching and writing an article takes a lot of time, which I don’t always have. If you are interested in one of the summarized attempts perhaps, I can give you more info about it. This is the summarized overview of the unraced projects of 2001..
Al-Waleed Grand Prix Team
So this is an interesting one. I wasn’t aware of the buy of Prost Grand Prix by the Al-Waleed family until begin this year. The son of Al-Waleed bin Talal, Khaled Al-Waleed invested in in June 2001 approx. 10million dollar in the Prost team. While Alain Prost was greedy and made another deal behind the back of Al-Waleed to save his team. In August 2001 Al-Waleed now with his friend Brendan McGuinness contacted Prost again to talk about the 45million debt the team had. The plan was to pay off the debts. Eventually due to the 9/11 attacks the deal went off. Read the story here.
Toyota TF101
In 2000 Toyota made the announcement that they were ready to enter the Formula One. As well, they announced that they were working on a car the Toyota TF101, which would be used during the 2001 season to test. And to test I mean to test a lot. Several drivers tested with the Toyota T101 in 2001. However, Alan McNish was one of the drivers that tested the most with the car. In 2002, he would be one of the drivers of the team.
Diniz Grand Prix
Pedro Diniz became in 2001 one of the shareholders within the Prost Grand Prix team. The Diniz family owned 40% of the Prost team. The rumours became more and more serious during the end of the 2001 season. In November 2001, Pedro Diniz made the statement that more information would follow about the future of Prost Grand Prix. Rumours went that the Diniz family was to buy the team from Alain Prost for 75million dollar. Read the story here.
Renault B201
The Renault B201 was first seen on the track in late 2001 to test electronics. It was the Benetton B201 only suited with the White-Yellow jacked instead of the mostly blue livery. Renault decided in 2000 that it was ready to return to the Formula One. To do so they purchased the Benetton team. The Renault B201 was used for electronica testing as well to test several aerodynamics that would appear on the Renault R202. Read the story here.
